Researchers have
learned that the social element in game play is just as important as content,
if not more so (Steinkuehler, 527). If the components for the social element
aren't there, the game won't work. Elements like online presence, and
chat space are an important element for social networking (Eisenstadt
& Dzbor, 3). So is the recognition one receives from peers when playing
an online game (Asgari, 244), which inspires confidence (McGonigal, 115).
Social networking in collaborative learning can have a big effect on how
the participants perceive their achievements and experience (Asgari, 245).
Online collaboration, when achieved on a larger scale such as with popular
ARGs, can have a profound effect on the participants when they look back
at their experience and think about what they've accomplished. Jane McGonigal
quotes a player as stating: 'The 7500+
people in this group ... we are all one. We have made manifest the idea
of an unbelievably intricate intelligence. We are one mind, one voice
... made of 7500+ neurons… We sit back and look at our monitors, and our
keyboards...our window to this vast collective consciousness... we are
not alone. We are not one person secluded from the rest of the world...kept
apart by the technology we have embraced. We have become a part of it
through the technology. We have become a part of something greater than
ourselves [41]". (McGonigal, 115)